After finishing a day's worth of missions, Takuma had spent another two hours pushing himself at the training ground. Now he wandered the streets, dragging his exhausted body along. His Healing Factor could keep repairing his muscles, but it couldn't do anything about his empty stomach.
All he wanted now was to find somewhere and eat his fill.
As he rounded a corner, the aroma of grilled meat wafted toward him. His body reacted before his brain could catch up, and his feet carried him toward the source of the smell. The Akimichi Clan's barbecue restaurant—the meat lover's paradise of Konoha—stood before him, the words "all you can eat" glowing on its sign in the night.
He felt for his wallet in his ninja pouch. He'd just been paid for his recent missions, and there was no rush to pay Tenten back. He'd trained too hard today; if he didn't eat meat, he might not survive tomorrow. That was reason enough. He pushed open the restaurant's wooden door.
The smell of barbecue smoke, the sizzle of fat on the iron grill—all the sensory details hit him at once. Takuma was just about to find a corner where he could quietly eat his dinner when his gaze swept across the restaurant and his steps froze.
Four people he knew sat around a long table by the window.
Inuzuka Kiba was standing on his chair, gesturing at Akamaru with a meaty bone. Shino Aburame sat upright across from him, a bug or two occasionally crawling out of his collar before disappearing back inside. Hyuga Hinata sat with her hands properly folded in her lap, her pale eyes fixed on the uncooked pork belly in front of her as if she were debating whether to pick up her chopsticks. Their team leader, Yuhi Kurenai, rested her chin in one hand and swirled her wineglass with the other, exuding the languid air of a mature woman.
Team 8 was all there.
Takuma instinctively wanted to turn around and retreat. It wasn't that he was afraid of them. It was because of the dark history from when he was six: the original owner of the body he now occupied had taken part in the despicable act of cornering Hinata. Though Takuma had switched sides and joined the fight as soon as he'd transmigrated into the body, something like that couldn't just be brushed aside with "I wasn't thinking straight back then."
It seemed he was already too late to retreat.
"Hey! You over there!" Kiba's nose was sharper than a dog's. Takuma hadn't even managed to turn around before he was spotted. "Aren't you that..."
Kiba jumped off the chair and squinted at Takuma, apparently trying hard to remember something. His expression shifted from confusion to sudden realization, then to anger.
"You're the jerk who bullied Hinata when we were kids!"
Every gaze in the restaurant instantly focused on Takuma.
Akamaru bared his teeth in support, though he was far too small to look intimidating. Shino pushed up his sunglasses. The bugs inside his collar began to wriggle noticeably faster—a sign of his hostility. Hinata shrank her shoulders, her cheeks turning pink as her eyes darted around, unsure where to look.
Only Yuhi Kurenai remained seated with her wineglass, watching the scene with interest.
Takuma took a deep breath and raised both hands.
"I admit it. I'm sorry. I regret what I did."
Before anyone could react, he strode over to Hinata and bent at the waist in a perfect ninety-degree bow.
"Miss Hinata, I'm deeply sorry about what happened when we were kids! Even though I switched sides and helped you partway through, I'd joined those two idiots in fooling around because I wasn't thinking straight! I won't make excuses! I'm formally apologizing to you here and now!"
His voice rang out, his attitude was sincere, and his posture was impeccable. Everyone in the restaurant was stunned.
Hinata's face turned bright red all the way to her ears. She flapped her hands frantically in the air.
"It's, it's okay... I-I've already put that behind me... And you really did help me back then..." Her voice grew softer and softer until the last few words were barely audible.
"I'm truly sorry." Takuma stayed bowed as he added that, then finally straightened up.
Kiba was caught somewhere between anger and suspicion, his expression almost comical. He'd prepared a whole speech to chew Takuma out, but the other guy had admitted fault faster than Kiba could get a harsh word out. It was like punching a pillow, and it left him frustrated.
"Hmph! At least you know what's good for you!" That was all Kiba could manage in the end. He plopped back into his chair and hugged Akamaru, rubbing him a couple of times to vent his frustration.
Shino fell silent for a moment, and the bugs in his collar settled down. He gave a slight nod, accepting the apology. As a member of the Aburame Clan, he had far better control over his emotions than Kiba.
"Now that the misunderstanding's been cleared up," Yuhi Kurenai said with a smile as she set down her wineglass, "why don't you sit down and eat with us? Barbecue isn't much fun alone."
Takuma hesitated. His common sense told him to politely decline and find a corner to eat by himself, but his wallet told him he could save quite a bit by mooching off Team 8. The wallet won.
"Then I'll take you up on that."
Takuma sat down at the end of the long table, and the proprietress soon brought him a fresh set of dishes and chopsticks.
The meat sizzled on the iron grill. Fat dripped along the grain, sparking a small flame. Takuma expertly flipped the slices, cooked them until both sides were golden with a slight char, then dipped them in sauce. One bite filled his mouth with rich, savory flavor.
Hinata's voice suddenly broke the silence.
"Um... Morimiya-kun." Fidgeting with the hem of her clothes, she gathered her courage and looked at Takuma. "Thank you for what you did back then."
Her voice was so soft that Takuma almost mistook it for the sizzle of meat on the grill.
"You don't have to thank me, do you? I was one of the people who bullied you back then." Takuma gave a wry smile.
"It's different." Hinata shook her head earnestly. "Back then... if Naruto-kun and you hadn't rushed out, I might have stayed afraid forever." Her eyes grew slightly red. "Whenever I ran into difficulties afterward, I would think of what happened that day. Not the fear of being surrounded, but the sight of someone standing up for me. It made me keep trying to become stronger."
Takuma stared at Hinata, stunned. He remembered her character arc in the original story: how she'd gone from a timid little girl to a kunoichi who dared to stand up to Pain. He'd thought that was all because of Naruto, but he'd never considered that his unintentional act back then had played a part too.
He suddenly felt that transmigrating here wasn't so bad after all.
Just then, the familiar system notification sounded in his mind.
[Event detected—"Team 8's Dinner"] [Witness judgment: Amid the warmth and bustle of the barbecue restaurant, an old grudge was dispelled by a sincere apology. The shadow of fear in Hinata's heart was ultimately replaced by courage and warmth.] [Reward: 1 lottery draw]
Takuma silently called for a draw. A palm-sized blue plush toy appeared in his hand. It had a round head, big eyes, and a shell on its back: Squirtle, from Pokémon. Its mouth opened slightly, and a thin stream of water sprayed out, just enough to fill the teacup in front of him.
"What's that?" Kiba leaned over to take a look. "Some kind of weird ninja beast plushie?"
"...A toy that sprays water." Takuma expressionlessly stuffed Squirtle into his ninja pouch, silently ranting inside. The system's taste was getting more and more ridiculous. Last time it was Buzz Lightyear's wings; this time it was a Squirtle plushie. Was it going to give him a transforming toy car next? He seriously suspected the system's prize pool was stocked by some toy store in a parallel universe.
"But it's kind of cute," Hinata said softly, looking at the pouch and giving a faint smile.
Takuma shook his head helplessly, picked up the last slice of barbecue, and popped it into his mouth.
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